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Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an e

by gyc 11y ago

Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an elite university, so I can see why Asian-American parents would think it's necessary for their children to focus so much on improving their test scores.

Apocryphon 11y ago
I think the natural followup question is- why do Asian American parents think their children need to get into elite universities?
- plonh 11y ago
  Because they were born in China and they learned the rules of the system where they grew up.
paulhauggis 11y ago
"Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American " It's because Asian-Americans statistically score much higher than white Americans so the competition is fierce. If you check the "Asian" box when you take the SATs, you actually get points deducted from your overall score. I'm not sure what started it, but the vicious cycle of over-achieving continues to make it so they need to get extremely high scores to be accepted to many ivy-league universities. On top of this, most universities in the US have student quotas based on ethnicity, instead of basing admission on merit.
- swframe 11y ago
  As for perfect SAT test scores equating to a right to get into Harvard... It is pretty clear that SAT scores are not always indicative of merit. When I was a Harvard senior I tutored another Harvard senior in high school algebra. She mentioned she got a perfect SAT score because her elite high school had a really good test prep program. There are many stories of people paying others to take the test, or people taking the test and sharing the questions with others, or people spending a lot of money or time to get a good score. In a way, that high score doesn't show that some students are more worthy to get in as much as it shows that affirmative action students need more affirmative action if the cycle of poverty is to be broken.
yuncun 11y ago
Tbh I don't take this for fact. My alternate theory is that schools aren't rejecting Asians for being Asian, but rather they are rejecting profiles that are common to ASians. How many apps do you think Cal receives every year with 4.3 GPA/2200 SAT, 4 yrs key club, no sports, and an essay about being nervous in a piano recital? If you get ten of those, and maybe one application from a kid in Inglewood with an 1850 SAT and a childhood fraught with gang violence, then I can't blame Cal for taking three from Category A and one from Category B, leaving seven families angry that their higher SAT was rejected. The disconnect for some Asian parents is that they're stuck with the Chinese idea that highest marks always equals best university. As a result they push push push their child to test higher on the SAT, GPA, farm community service hours, play more piano... But they don't realize American schools aren't solely score based, and at the end of the day, there comes a point where the University just isn't impressed by the same profile over and over again. As a supporting anecode, I'm Chinese, and I was admitted to a competitive department at UCLA with a 3.7 unweighted GPA in 2009, which was far below the average for whites, or asians. So I don't think there's a conspiracy against Asians.
- gyc 11y ago
  I certainly do think what you have described it's a well accepted stereotype, and it may well be true in your anecdotal experience, but I don't think there's been any real evidence that Asian applicants, as a whole, are nothing but test taking, piano/violin playing robots or are as a whole less well-rounded (by whatever measure) than white applicants. As for your own experience, prop 209 passed in California banned the state, including state universities, from considering race, so you were not judged by any heightened Asian standard like some other schools.
  - yuncun 11y ago
    Yeah, I dont want to accuse asian kids of being robots - that would be unfair, for example, to some non East Asian kids who dont have privileged upbringings. I just want to provide a counterpoint. And I was not aware that the AA ban was a California only prop, but that makes sense.
- deleted 11y ago

by gyc 11y ago

Apocryphon 11y ago

I think the natural followup question is- why do Asian American parents think their children need to get into elite universities?

plonh 11y ago
Because they were born in China and they learned the rules of the system where they grew up.

paulhauggis 11y ago

"Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American " It's because Asian-Americans statistically score much higher than white Americans so the competition is fierce. If you check the "Asian" box when you take the SATs, you actually get points deducted from your overall score. I'm not sure what started it, but the vicious cycle of over-achieving continues to make it so they need to get extremely high scores to be accepted to many ivy-league universities. On top of this, most universities in the US have student quotas based on ethnicity, instead of basing admission on merit.

swframe 11y ago
As for perfect SAT test scores equating to a right to get into Harvard... It is pretty clear that SAT scores are not always indicative of merit. When I was a Harvard senior I tutored another Harvard senior in high school algebra. She mentioned she got a perfect SAT score because her elite high school had a really good test prep program. There are many stories of people paying others to take the test, or people taking the test and sharing the questions with others, or people spending a lot of money or time to get a good score. In a way, that high score doesn't show that some students are more worthy to get in as much as it shows that affirmative action students need more affirmative action if the cycle of poverty is to be broken.

yuncun 11y ago

Tbh I don't take this for fact. My alternate theory is that schools aren't rejecting Asians for being Asian, but rather they are rejecting profiles that are common to ASians. How many apps do you think Cal receives every year with 4.3 GPA/2200 SAT, 4 yrs key club, no sports, and an essay about being nervous in a piano recital? If you get ten of those, and maybe one application from a kid in Inglewood with an 1850 SAT and a childhood fraught with gang violence, then I can't blame Cal for taking three from Category A and one from Category B, leaving seven families angry that their higher SAT was rejected. The disconnect for some Asian parents is that they're stuck with the Chinese idea that highest marks always equals best university. As a result they push push push their child to test higher on the SAT, GPA, farm community service hours, play more piano... But they don't realize American schools aren't solely score based, and at the end of the day, there comes a point where the University just isn't impressed by the same profile over and over again. As a supporting anecode, I'm Chinese, and I was admitted to a competitive department at UCLA with a 3.7 unweighted GPA in 2009, which was far below the average for whites, or asians. So I don't think there's a conspiracy against Asians.

gyc 11y ago
I certainly do think what you have described it's a well accepted stereotype, and it may well be true in your anecdotal experience, but I don't think there's been any real evidence that Asian applicants, as a whole, are nothing but test taking, piano/violin playing robots or are as a whole less well-rounded (by whatever measure) than white applicants. As for your own experience, prop 209 passed in California banned the state, including state universities, from considering race, so you were not judged by any heightened Asian standard like some other schools.
- yuncun 11y ago
  Yeah, I dont want to accuse asian kids of being robots - that would be unfair, for example, to some non East Asian kids who dont have privileged upbringings. I just want to provide a counterpoint. And I was not aware that the AA ban was a California only prop, but that makes sense.
deleted 11y ago